Ballina Shire Council is urging residents not to put hazardous materials in any kerbside bin, following a fire at the Resource Recovery Centre last weekend.
A large blaze, smoke, and loud bangs were noticed coming from the recycling dome at the Ballina Resource Recovery Centre just before midnight Saturday 26 October. While the exact cause of this fire is unknown, multiple loose batteries, items with embedded batteries, gas bottles, and chemical containers were found once the blaze was extinguished.
These items are all classed as hazardous waste and should not be placed in any kerbside bin.
This problem is not unique to Ballina with at least three reported battery fires across Australia each day.
"We are extremely relieved that no community members or staff were injured but the fire has done significant damage to the recycling dome within our Resource Recovery Centre. It's also disappointing to see so much hazardous waste is still incorrectly being placed in kerbside bins," said Mr Lloyd Isaacson, Manager Asset Management and Resource Recovery.
"This incident isn't the first fire we've experienced, but it's definitely the worst. We've had regular occurrences of small fires in our collection vehicles, at the Resource Recovery Centre and at our recycling facility. Typically, these are from lithium-ion batteries and items with embedded batteries like vapes."
"We hope this fire will be a reminder to all residents that they must dispose of hazardous household waste like batteries, gas bottles, vapes and chemicals at our Resource Recovery Centre. It's free and we are open 7 days week," added Mr Isaacson.
What's the risk?
Placing batteries and other dangerous items in kerbside bins puts waste staff, facilities, our environment, and each other at risk. Properly disposing of these items takes a little more effort, but the risk is simply too great not to.
If a fire starts in a kerbside bin, it has the potential to spark fires in the surrounding areas, even jumping to a house, which occurred in Adelaide earlier this year.
Fires or explosions in collection trucks can harm nearby people, collection drivers, or damage or destroy the truck entirely. If a fire is not quickly extinguished at a recycling facility it can cause significant damage or the loss of an entire facility, like Canberra's Boxing Day fire in 2022, leading to millions of dollars of damage and environmental harm from the burning of plastics and other materials.
What is hazardous household waste?
Hazardous or dangerous items you should NEVER put in kerbside bins include:
- Batteries (small or large)
- Any item containing a battery
- Vapes or e-cigarettes
- Gas bottles (full or empty)
- Chemicals
- Flares
Luckily, these items can all be properly disposed of for free across a range of locations.
Where to recycle hazardous household waste
The Ballina Resource Recovery Centre accepts:
- batteries (household or car)
- More options for household, button, or rechargeable batteries include any B-cycle location like supermarkets and Bunnings: Find a B-cycle Drop off point - B-cycle
- mobile phones and accessories
- Find even more spots to dispose of old mobile phones at Mobile Muster Recycle a mobile - Mobile Muster, including all area libraries
- computers, computer parts, TVs and accessories
- e-waste: any item with a plug, power cord or battery (please remove batteries if easily removable and dispose of them appropriately)
- gas bottles and fire extinguishers
- vapes
Embedded batteries are permanently placed inside an item with no easy way of being removed and are found in everyday items including:
- Bluetooth speakers and headphones
- electric toothbrushes
- e-scooters, e-bikes and hover boards
- flashing/light up toys – particularly wands or other hard plastic products
- personal care devices (eg. shavers)
- powerpacks and portable charging devices
- remote controlled and ride-on toys
- vacuum cleaners (cordless hand-held and robotic)
- vapes
- wearable devices such as smart watches, trackers and medical aids.
The Federal Government is working out the best way to help residents easily and safely dispose of these common items at their end-of-life, which are also one of the most common sources of battery fires.
An embedded battery trial is currently happening at 21 locations across NSW, including Lismore. Bring these items into the Lismore Community Recycling Centre for free, find out more here: Embedded batteries.
Chemicals: Find out about the next Household Chemical CleanOut event here Find CRCs or Chemical CleanOuts
